Guides

Tag: sex parties

DEA agents who have lied to authorities, falsified records, dealt drugs and committed other serious misconduct have been allowed to stay on the job, USA Today reports.

The discovery comes after lawmakers expressed frustration that agents were never fired for attending “sex parties” in Columbia.

Records from the DEA’s disciplinary files show that was hardly the only instance in which the DEA opted not to fire employees despite apparently serious misconduct, The USA Today writes.

The newspaper found that only 13 of the 50 employees recommended to be fired by the DEA’s Board of Professional Conduct were actually terminated.

“If we conducted an investigation, and an employee actually got terminated, I was surprised,” said Carl Pike, a former DEA internal affairs investigator. “I was truly, truly surprised. Like, wow, the system actually got this guy.”

Some members of Congress are calling for more action.

“There is a culture of protection internally that has to change. If there’s a bad apple, they need to be fired, if not prosecuted, and that’s just not happening,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “Federal law enforcement should be held to the highest standard.”

“This new internal report details years of allegations — beginning in 2001 — that portray DEA agents as completely out of control,” Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, said in a statement Tuesday. “They appear to have fraternized with cartel members, accepted lavish gifts, and paid for prostitutes with no concern for the negative repercussions or security vulnerabilities they created.”

FBI agents investigating claims that U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez was attending sex parties with prostitutes in the Dominican Republic are accused of brow-beating two maids for information, the Miami Herald reports.

The maids are asking the Dominican National Police to investigate the FBI’s handling of them, saying they were illegally detained and felt threatened, the Herald wrote.

The maids are employees of Dr. Salomon Melgen, a Florida doctor who is accused of hiring prostitutes for Menendez, a Democrat, at the vacation home in the Dominican.

The maids said they felt pressured to make false claims that the senator was having sex at the house.